scholars these days are writing books about the revenge of god, that religion is making a comeback as a political player. two-thirds of the 1.2 billion catholics in the world today live outside the west, and most live in societies where religion is critically important, so, yeah, i would say there's still some gas left in the church's political gas tank. >> john, real quickly, only a couple of seconds left here, but what do you know specifically in regards to what they are looking for for a pope? stances on abortion, same-sex marriage, that kind of thing. >> reporter: well, all these cardinals have been appointed by john paul and benedict so they are all in agreement on the main. of course they are looking for a hole guy but three things quickly, one, somebody with a global vision, two, somebody who is a missionary, who can take the church's message to the street and, three, somebody who can fix the perceived internal governance problems in the vatican itself. you roll all that up, you probably have a pope. >> john allen, so good to get your insight. thank you so much for being with u